Big League Stew

The 2012 MLB postseason picture is set

It's official. With Baltimore's 4-1 loss to Tampa Bay clinching the AL East title for the New York Yankees on Wednesday night, we finally know what the postseason matchups are going to look like.

Or at least, we mostly do. The debut of the wild-card play-in games means that the top seeds in each league — the Yankees and the NL East champion Washington Nationals — won't know their first-round opponent until those games conclude on Friday night.

But here's what we do know: The Baltimore Orioles will travel to Texas to play the Rangers in the AL wild-card play-in game on Friday night while the Atlanta Braves will host the St. Louis Cardinals earlier in the day. The winner advances to the LDS round and will host the first two games while the loser heads home to debate the relative merits and honor of being a playoff team for all of one game.

Meanwhile, the two mid-seed matchups are already set. The NL Central champion Cincinnati Reds will face Dusty Baker's old squad, the NL West champion San Francisco Giants while the AL Central champion Detroit Tigers get the relative honor of trying to cool down the Oakland A's after they blitzed their way to the AL West title.

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